Baseball

HARTSVILLE, S.C. – In their final home game of the 2011 season the Coker baseball team was unable to come away with a victory falling 3-1 to the Falcons of Pfeiffer University. The loss makes six straight for the Cobras, including the three-game sweep by Pfeiffer over the weekend. Coker also falls out of contention for the Conference Carolinas Tournament next week in Wilson, N.C. The top six teams in the conference advance to the tournament and Coker finishes the year in seventh.

Pfeiffer will be the #4 seed in the tournament as they finish the year with a record of 12-9 in conference play.

The Falcons scored a run in the first, third and fifth innings to take a 3-0 lead, with Jacob Yates (Blairs, Va.) scoring each of the runs for Pfeiffer. The Cobras did not manage to get a run until the eighth inning when Matt Ammons (Chester, S.C.) plated Jonathan Gainey (Hartsville, S.C.). That was Coker’s first run in 41 innings of baseball action.

With a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth, the Falcons gave the ball to John Sullivan (Concord, N.C.) to shut the door and he did. Sullivan (1) earned his first save of the season by pitching a scoreless ninth with a strikeout.

Matt Long (Florence, S.C.) (1-4) took the loss for the Cobras in his final outing at Tom J. New Field. The senior allowed three runs on eight hits with four strikeouts in 8.2 innings of work.

John McDaniel (Mocksville, N.C.) (2-4) got the win for the Falcons. He did not allow a run while scattering five hits with six K’s in seven innings on the mound.

At the plate for the Cobras, Ammons drove in the Cobras lone run, while Fico Kondla (Miami, Fla.) had a pair of hits.

For Pfeiffer, Yates was 2-for-4 with three runs scored and Jesse Dunn (Easley, S.C.) was also 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Mike Green (Brandon, Fla.) had three hits and Tyler Smith (Locust, N.C.) had an RBI.

Coker will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Orangeburg, S.C. to face Claflin University in a non-conference game at 6:00 p.m.